Accompanying FIG. 2 shows a dispenser device 4 equipped with a fixing member in the form of a plastics ring to be snap-fastened onto the neck of a container. Accompanying FIG. 1 shows the fixing ring only. In general, such a dispenser device, which may be a pump or a valve, is constituted by a body 41 defining an outwardly-projecting rim 42 at its top end. An actuating rod 43 projects upwards beyond the rim 42. A pushbutton 4 provided with a nozzle 45 is mounted on the actuating rod 43. Conventionally, the dispenser device is actuated by pushing the pushbutton 4 so that the actuating rod 43 penetrates into the body 41. Such a dispenser device design is quite conventional and is in no way critical for the present invention.
To fix such a dispenser device to the neck of a container (not shown), the fixing ring 1 that is used comprises fixing means for fixing to the neck of the receptacle, and body-receiving means for receiving the body 41 of the dispenser device 4. In that prior art ring 1, the fixing means are in the form of snap-fastening catches 12 whose bottom ends are provided with inwardly-projecting snap-fastening heads 13. The snap-fastening catches 12 are flexible enough to enable the snap-fastening heads 13 to pass over the neck of the container and to snap-fasten below said neck. As shown in FIG. 2, the ring 1 is fixed permanently onto the neck by means of a locking band 3 which covers the fixing ring 1 so that the snap-fastening heads 13 cannot move radially outwards. Permanent fixing is thus achieved. The means provided on the fixing ring 1 for the purpose of receiving the body 41 of the dispenser device 4 are in the form of a snap-fastening recess 17, in which the rim 42 of the body 41 is engaged by force. The snap-fastening recess 17 is formed by a cylindrical wall 16 whose bottom end is connected to the snap-fastening catches 12 via an annular flange 11, and whose top end is extended by another annular flange 18 provided with a through hole 19 in its center for passing the actuating rod 43. To enable the rim 42 to be received by snap-fastening in the recess 17, the inside of cylindrical wall 16 is provided with snap-fastening bulges which locally narrow the entrance to the snap-fastening recess 17. Such a fixing ring design is quite conventional.
Recently, attempts have been made to reduce the height between the top end of the pushbutton 4 and the annular coupling flange 11 of the fixing ring 1, for reasons of esthetic appearance. The inside surface of the coupling flange 11 constitutes the abutment surface against which the sealing gasket that is placed on the neck of the receptacle is disposed. As a result, the height between the pushbutton 4 and the flange 11 constitutes the height over which the dispenser device projects beyond the neck of the receptacle. In fields such as those of perfumery and of cosmetics, in which the esthetic appearance of the dispenser is particularly important, it is naturally preferred for that height to be as small as possible so as to leave very little of the dispenser device visible on the container. For any given dispenser device, the pushbutton-to-flange height is determined directly by the height of the cylindrical wall 16 connecting the flange 11 to the flange 18, as shown in FIG. 1.
Therefore, the technical problem for the present invention is to make it possible to reduce the distance between the two flanges 11 and 18. This is not possible with a prior art fixing ring as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In order for the snap-fastening recess 17 to be resilient enough to enable the cylindrical wall 16 to deform radially outwards when the rim 42 passes between the snap-fastening bulges 15, it is absolutely essential for the cylindrical wall 16 to be tall enough. It is therefore not possible to reduce the height, because, at the coupling flange 11 and at the top flange 18, the wall 16 has no resilience. This requirement that the cylindrical wall 16 must be resilient is also necessary for removing the fixing ring 1 from its mold when the pin that has served to mold the recess 17 is to be extracted. If the wall 16 tis not resilient enough, it is not possible to extract the pin from the recess without damaging the coupling flange 11. For both of these reasons related firstly to unmolding, and secondly to snap-fastening the rim 42 of the body 41 of the dispenser device, it is not technically possible to reduce the height of the cylindrical wall 16 of a prior art fixing ring as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.